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Sure, I too subscribe to the notion that movies are first and foremost meant to be diversionary entertainment. If you're out to make a serious point you ought to give up and make a documentary. The sure fire way to keep me away from a movie is to tell me that it's an "important film."

However, most quality entertainment has a point to it. Not to belabor the point, but in a movie every word should mean something. Every location should help tell the story. Every character is a point of view. Every scene needs to lead us to the next one. Every sequence propels the story forward. Each act has a beginning, middle, and end that keeps us interested. In a perfect world, everything that you see and hear should contribute to telling the story that ultimately entertains you.

Sure, as a second-grader, I thought Star Wars was great. Not because of all that mythical stuff but because the Stormtroopers were cool and the spaceships and the aliens...and wow...it was amazing. To a little kid, even the pod race is cool. Does that mean that it has a point just because it's cool? Of course not. My 6 year old enjoys the pod race in the same way that I do. It's fun to watch, but even better to be a part of it. So we play RACER on the computer. There's no story there, just good clean fun. That's okay for a video game. That's the point. But it's not okay for a movie. We plunk down 7 bucks to see a good story well told. If GL is content with stringing together video game fodder in the guise of feature film, then so be it. But to be so ingenious as to insist that the older fans won't get it and that it's all really for kids is ridiculous. ANH, ESB, and ROTJ were all kid AND adult fare. He knew that as well as anybody. Why would he suddenly decide to just make the SW universe into something that kids would enjoy on their superficial level?

The original intent of the pod race got lost because GL isn't that great of a writer. What we're left with is the lead-in for a video game.

We come away from the pod race with him showing his strong with the force and that his the only human who can do it [/COLOR]

Maybe so, but we learned that already in the long drawn out and boring dinner sequence just prior. So what's the point of watching a pod race where we already know who is going to win and why?

If GL wanted that to be the reason for the pod race, we should have SEEN the pod race FIRST, and then it would have been just peachy for somebody to say, "oh, Ani won because he's the only human that can do it" to which Qui Gon surmises "Hmm, he must be strong with the Force and must be trained!"

You see how just a slight rewrite makes this all work out? Where was Kasdan when GL needed him?

Hmmm...whats the point in watching the race if we already knew who was going to win?? That is like saying...whats the point of watching EÍI and EPIII if in the end we already knew what happened to Anakin and OB1...As BB stated in an earlier post, the point of the race was to have an action scene in the movie, maybe some of us already knew Anakin was going to win, but who knows??? Remember ESB, in that movie Han, Luke, C3PO, etc... got his ***** kicked big time. In the end we will watch EP II and EPIII and will be here 5 yrs from now arguing about some other stuff, and thats the good thing about it, "Diversity of opinions".

Now that I think about it, I don't think the pod race was so much to prove that Anakin was strong in the force (because I don't really think it proved anything other than that he is a good driver). I think it was devised to get Anakin into the story. The Jedi and the Naboo crew were stuck on Tatooine, too stupid/loserish to find a way to get home. Anakin comes up with an idea to get them home: use my pod, bet on the race, I win, you go home. Anakin saves the day.

I thought it was much better done and less contrived than the "Anakin saves the day" scene at the end of the movie.

I have to agree about the dinner table scene. Stooopid. The best thing about it was Jar Jar (that's how bad it was). With all its faults, I still liked the movie, and I always will.

Originally posted by ThomasLane Now that I think about it, I don't think the pod race was so much to prove that Anakin was strong in the force (because I don't really think it proved anything other than that he is a good driver). I think it was devised to get Anakin into the story. The Jedi and the Naboo crew were stuck on Tatooine, too stupid/loserish to find a way to get home. Anakin comes up with an idea to get them home: use my pod, bet on the race, I win, you go home. Anakin saves the day.

Good point, ThomasLane. It also shows that Anakin has hung around Watto long enought to know how to cut shady deals that pit the middle against both ends. Pretty sneaky sis

"Does the name "Dingo" mean anything to you?" - Jedi Boulton to DingoDad at the October Dallas ComiCon.